Thermal Inflation with a Thermal Waterfall Scalar Field Coupled to a Light Spectator Scalar Field [CL]

A new model of thermal inflation is introduced, in which the mass of the thermal waterfall field is dependent on a light spectator scalar field. Using the $\delta N$ formalism, the “end of inflation” scenario is investigated in order to ascertain whether this model is able to produce the dominant contribution to the primordial curvature perturbation. A multitude of constrains are considered so as to explore the parameter space, with particular emphasis to key observational signatures. For natural values of the parameters, the model is found to yield a sharp prediction for the scalar spectral index and its running, well within the current observational bounds.